


A lone sword

by Meloncholor



Series: The Gift of a Sword [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: But it's going to span almost the entirety of DA:O, Character Study, Each work is relatively short, M/M, Slow Burn, There will eventually be a payoff, This is a sort of AU I'm working on, character exploration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 06:57:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16236539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meloncholor/pseuds/Meloncholor
Summary: A prelude.Alistair and Leliana have a short conversation about the absence of their leader.





	A lone sword

    “Valmiro, come to bed. Please?” Leiliana pleaded, into the cloth of her Warden’s tent. There was a soft grumble in response, and she sighed. The bard tried not to drag her feet as she resigned to defeat. Darkness had fallen and she had been lucky enough not to take first watch. She took a seat on a log by the fire. Leiliana could hear the Warden clinking away at his bottles, concocting this and that, scrawling down new recipes on any spare scrap of paper, and occasionally on his arms. She looked back at her own tent, her favorite lute lazily propped up along its side. Perhaps a song would draw him out.  
    “He’s not delicate you know,” Leiliana did not need to look up, “for a mage at least.” Alistair sat by the fire, his feet warmed against the billowing flames.   
     “He’s like a mother hen, even he needs his rest.” She replied. The warrior was staring numbly up at the sky, twiddling his hands between his knees.  
     “True, but if it weren’t for him and his magical potions and whatnot I would have collapsed into a bloody heap by now. He gestures to a particularly large chunk missing from his breastplate, just below the neck. “Took and Arcane Horror to the chest earlier, the worst thing I’ve probably felt in my whole life, burnt straight through the armor. Next thing you know my burns are gone and Val has me in the crazy blue light, I look over and the Horror is a steaming pile of rags.”  
     She smiled “You’d think he’d be a little less,” she searched for a word, making nonsense figures in the air. “ doting, with how he acts.”  
     Alistair chuckled over the sound of the fire, “You got that right. Yet there he goes, mixing potions until he can’t keep his eyes open.”   
     Silence fell over the camp, the sound of glass bottles chiming accompanying the sound of their small fire, the warrior’s gaze returned to the stars.  
     “I saw him fall today.” Leiliana said after the quiet had dragged on for too long.  
     “Really?” Alistair whispered. “I didn’t even realize.”  
     “It was after we ran out of poultices, he got distracted trying to make more and he topple as soon as one of those genlocks got too close.” Her chest felt tight. “He’s always so,” she searched again.”omnipresent, like a spirit watching over us, I felt as though despair had taken over the battlefield. He hasn’t spoken since.”  
     “That explains why he hasn’t left his ‘hole’ all day.” Alistair cast a worried glance at the tent. “Even Sten asked after him.”  
     “He’s so withdrawn, I wish he would at least try to get some rest, he’s probably still in pain.”  
     Alistair hummed in agreement. “He will, after he’s done restocking. It’s going to be a late morning tomorrow. Get some rest Leiliana.”   
     “I’ll take next watch, let me know if he ends up sleeping won’t you?”  
     The templar nodded. “Of course.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Not my first work, but definitely the first one I've posted, any comments or criticisms welcome. I live for any feedback


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